Wednesday, 30 September 2009

The A-side has an insane, almost scary mix of Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (they always had great track titles) from Autechre, whereas Kid Loco turns in a much more easy-on-the-ear mix of Contronatura on the flip. I prefer the insanity of the A-side but both are winners in my book.

Saw Stereolab once and they put on a great show - they seem to be on hiatus now, hopefully they'll get their shit back together in time for the festival season next year...

A great 1998 EP from Scotland's own Mr Landstrumm, released 1998 on Scandinavia Records.

This is one dirty motherfucker of an EP. Haunting, evil, gritty, distorted, punishing… I could go on but I guess you get the picture.

I always associated Neil Landstrumm with the Test club night at Glasgow Art School. Saw him there a few times. Never got the same buzz there that I got from Pure, although ended up there on numerous occasions (let's just say it was easy to get what you were after in there). Interestingly, Test used to tag all their posters and promo stuff with 'Glasvegas', long before the uninspired Glasgow four-piece came along with the same name.

I think Neil's back in Scotland after having fucked off to New York for a while. He's done video work on games for RockStar as well, the over-talented cunt...

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

A bizarre day today - shitty day at work (Tuesday after a bank holiday weekend, go figure), then checked my email to find a message from none other than Mr Tim Freeman:

"...hope you don't mind me mailing you directly. I had a trawl thru my tapes and found a DAT tape I'd forgotten about, it's a recording of a short gig we did in 1995 for dutch radio station VPRO...not the best show we ever did, but it's ok-ish... anyways thought you might enjoy it. I did my best on the mix but I remember being a bit nervous as I'd never done a live-to-air mix before...so it could have been better, as could the band's performance. Also there was almost no audience (it was in a small venue, like a bar) so that didn't help the vibe...

There's also many versions of Kraak on another DAT, but most of 'em aren't worth bothering with..however I might get round to editing the better bits together at some point, if you like I'll keep you posted."

Wow! I replied back that this was excellent news, and got this in reply:

"don't get too excited, it's not that good :) but it's ok, might trigger a few memories for those who saw us live...

Well I can assure you that Tim is talking shite, from what I've listened to so far it's sounding mighty fine - taking me right back...

The other thing that was bizarre was an email which literally came in two minutes after Tim's initial one, from Tony fae Fife - the man who supplied us with the demo tape from below, with these thoughts:

"is that not tim freeman himself who left the last comment on the pwog demos post? sure looks like it... pity he didnt leave contact details. if there's one person out there who will have live tapes, its got to be him..."

The 7th 12" on Chain Reaction, from 1996 and follow-up to this release.

This is a bit weird - there's no drums on this at all, yet it manages to have a very clear sense of rhythm. There's what sounds like it might be the treated hiss of a hi-hat but I'm not sure. Lots of "loud, swirling synthetic drones" according to someone on Discogs.

It's all a bit trippy and takes you away to a different place for half an hour or so, if you do both sides in the one go. Recommended headphone listening...

This was recorded in LA a few weeks ago and I nicked it off DimeADozen, converted it to 320 mp3 and fired it up here. This is the kind of thing that Dime folks hate but I'm sure Trent Reznor won't give a fuck - he's always encouraged internet distribution of NIN stuff.

Check out the setlist - not one but TWO Joy Division covers, and special guests a gogo including Gary Numan for three tracks (including I Die: You Die) before Dave Navarro helps out on three tracks later on.

It's a biggie, so it's split into 5 RARs. You know what to do. This was going to get put up yesterday but being a bank holiday weekend one thing led to another on Saturday night and into Sunday...

"I just think it’s better to have failed on your own terms than to have succeeded on somebody else’s. It may be using a flowery way to excuse my shortcomings, to liken myself to someone going up Everest without the proper equipment when really all I’ve done is not done things properly. Again, it’s that thing of create your own system or be a slave to another man’s, William Blake I kind of paraphrase, I don’t know the exact quote, but that’s the gist. I interviewed Throbbing Gristle and they said, ‘If you do something that you believe in, the worst that can happen is people say, ‘I don’t like it’, but if you do something that you’ve compromised and people say they don’t like it, it’s a kind of double hit.’ That really stuck with me and it’s seen me through many times of doubt.”

Saturday, 26 September 2009

Recently I got a very nice email from 'Jim' which contained the following rhyming couplet: "It only seems reasonable to offer something in return to use / abuse / share with the interweb as you choose." Very poetic Jim, but it was the casually tossed away line at the end that really got me: "...some AW related stuff such as recordings of the Wrong Meeting session with Smagghe?" - WTF!?!?

I've always been a fan of Smagghe - he's one of the trusted few who have ever taken over the reigns at Optimo when Twitch & Wilkes have been away, and the Black Strobe stuff is magnificent. Sounds like a winning combination...

After a bit of googling, it looks like this set was recorded in 2006, and gets mentioned in this interview. I've not made it through the full five hours yet - Jim's CD only arrived a couple of days ago and I've just got The Boardroom Vol 2 through the post so a bit spoilt, but plan to do so before the weekend is out.

Anyway - big thanks to Jim for this one. What I've listened to already sounds excellent - all sorts of musical styles for the first bit, before settling into the heavy stuff later on. I've split it onto 8 RAR files that you'll need to download then double-click the first one. Shouldn't be a problem.

Just found out that Audrey will be DJing at the inaugural night of a new club at the wonderful Stereo in Glasgow - The B^stard Dancehall - Friday 16th October you say? Diary now cleared.

This is the second of the four singles that were released from the Infected album, circa 1986.

The The are one of the few bands that I missed live - I remember going down to the ticket bit in Virgin and they only had one left for the Barras show (Mind Bomb tour) - there were two of us that used to always go to gig together so we just left it. Gutted. Never did see them in the end.

The A-side has the famous "this is the 51st state of the USA" chorus and isn't extended at all from the album version. 12" singles used to be a right con back in the 80s didn't they? Track B1 has a plinky plonk keyboard riff that is trying to sound like the hook from Lets Go To Bed by The Cure but doesn't quite manage it and then there's a spoken distorted vocal over noises kinda thing for the B2 track. Matt used to love doing those distorted spoken vocals.

*EDIT* It doesn't sound like Lets Go To Bed - I just said that to annoy my Cure-addict girlfriend, Wait till she sees Sunday's nonsense...

I loved all the imagery of the Soul Mining and Infected era stuff - it was a great logo and Matt's brother Andy did all the accompanying artwork. I remember once seeing a guy at a gig who had the whole of the Soul Mining cover on the back of his biker jacket. I was never talented enough to attempt any sort of band logo on mine...

Friday, 25 September 2009

This originally came out on Plus 8, but mine's an inside-out red vinyl jobby on the UK 'Champion' label. Looking at the label, it reminds me of a time I used to work in a petrol station as a kid and a guy came in to pay for his petrol, buy fags and thanked me by saying, "cheers pal, that's champion". What the fuck?? That's champion? Who speaks like this? Maybe I should integrate it into my inventory of chat from now on.

The tunes here are all champion - there's only one city on the planet that they could have been produced. I can't believe that they're almost 20 years old as well - mental. They're all co-produced by John Acquaviva which is a nice Brucie bonus.

On A1, the Ballistic Brothers get a right skank on with the sublime Peckings, nearly 3 minutes of rasta/reggae which is a tribute to the London record shop of the same name (142 Askew Road, Shepherds Bush, W12, fact fans).

A2 sees Wax Doctor using his family name for once, and I'll hand you over to Alain Patrick's review on Discogs for this one: "The 'Simon Templar Mix' for Ballistic Brothers - Come On belongs to the talented Wax Doctor, an artist rather committed to a more sophisticated form of art. With harmonic Jazzy Sax incursions and warm chords, this version is fully atmospheric and dub influenced, perfect for the intense listeners (just take a look at the part of the vocal echoes with the intensiveness of the chords & strings). A piece of art!"

Luke Slater delivers an outstanding techno track on the flip, unrecognisable from Wax Doctor's take on the A-side which is up there with any Planetary Assault Systems stuff which he was knocking out at the time.

Thursday, 24 September 2009

A great find here - thought I'd uploaded all my Holistic records. This one came out in 1995.

Four tracks of haunting electronic noises over heavy beats - lots of nice sinister bits and pieces here. Some of the noises sound like background music on Chris Morris' Jam. Very dubby, the dubbier younger cousin of Piranha Cuts I suppose.

I've always enjoyed a good run-out groove comment. On the B-side of this is "David Icke is our leader!" - hmmm...

My first post of nudity here - hairy snatch & armpits AND smoking a fag (maybe she should have taken a leaf out of Klart's book from below). If I was 15 again(!) the fly would be getting unzipped...

Right - that's me off to get shit together before the journey to Stereo to see the Fuck Buttons. Contemplating bootlegging it but dunno if I can be fucked with the hassle. See you down the front...

... so went the charming refrain from track A1 on this Weatherall & Tenniswood EP, which was the debut release on RGC in 2001.

Lots of fast breaks, it's a great dark, dirty, evil EP with some FAB riffs on it - check the bass on track A2 for example. Magnificent stuff all round. This EP got played to death round RiG Towers when it first came out - it is truly amazing.

It's nice and short and to the point as well (just like this intro) - check the track titles, and each track is under 4 mins long.

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

This was a remix of the Underground Goodies Vol 3 EP which finally gives the Percolator track the light of day, from 1992.

I always loved the track Chit Chat, and the mixes here are about the best that he did from the pre-Cajual period. The big tune is Percolator though, and it took me ages to get my hands on this 12" - kept thinking that other coffee-related tunes were the one, but when I got home from the shop it wasn't the one. It was such a hit that future versions had PERCOLATOR in massive letters on the label but who give a fuck - this is classic Cajmere. There's a wee jump at the end of it that I can't do anything about but it doesn't interfere with the track too much - apologies for that one.

Track B3 must not be overlooked - it is an excellent Green Velvet-style tune with a great kick drum and laser-gun noises over a great building synth line. A magnificent end to a fab remix EP...

This is a mixed bag, featuring a downtempo track mixed by Carl Craig (thumbs up), a jazzy track, and a classic Detroit-style track mixed by Carl Craig (big thumbs up). Guess which one's the duffer?

This 12" first came to my attention due to the big horrible-looking burger on the sleeve with hunners of reel-to-reel tape as a garnish AND an olive on top. Check it oot below, not very appetising is it? She's gonna hurt her hand on the top of that stick with the flag on it as well. She looks a bit fucked though, so might not notice till tomorrow...

Pick of the bunch for me is the B-side, which features Carl Craig's magic touch all over it. A great piece of music.

So... download the pack, listen to it in the correct order attempting the whole of A2, then more than likely delete track A2 and enjoy the magic of the other two tracks...

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

I was always a fan of their 'rockney' sound ("pub singalong, music-hall humour, boogie-woogie piano and pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll") and caught them a couple of times live. Once was on a Sunday afternoon in a tent in Glasgow Green which involved smuggled-in bottles of wine and bizarre dancing in the aisles, the next was a Saturday night in Hamilton Town Hall where they played two sets. For the first set we were upstairs on the balcony (seated) as our tickets dictated, but managed to sneak in during the interval for a good old boogie with all the old dears downstairs. A fab night, which ended with me buying this CD from the boys, and getting it signed. They played a couple of recent Glastonburys as well and went down a storm. Not in an "ironic" Rolf Harris kinda way (get him tae fuck), but with genuine love and adoration from the tent. That's what my mate said anyway...

Recent activity has also seen them play with The Libertines pre-split, and 'Rabbit' has bizarrely appeared on Singstar for the PS3 - me & m'lady did it at about 7am one morning during the summer at a mate's house (I was Chas, she was Dave). Fortunately the 'record video' option was off.

We were supposed to go and see them at Latitude Festival this year, but Dave's wife of 36 years had sadly just died so obviously the show was pulled. This was the beginning of the end for the band - I'm sure they're till great pals (along with third member 'Mick the Sticks') but you can see why they called it a day.

Here's my selection of 5 tracks from the CD I bought at the gig - you can still buy their stuff through the official website so I'll leave it at that.

The self-proclaimed 'prince of techno' with a set of remixes on the Logic label from 1992.

At the time I was convinced that the 'Red Planet' remix was the work of UR (and duly bought the record), but it was the European wing of 3MB who were responsible instead. This was around the time of all the Tresor Berlin/Detroit Alliance stuff. I can't fuckin believe that these first three 'Planet' remixes on this are done by Maurizio and Thomas Fehlman! Obviously way before the Basic Channel sound/studio setup was developed. By the way, there's a great article about Basic Channel in The Quietus that you should check out.

If I'm being honest I can take or leave the A1 mix - certainly not a classic (a wee bit Gypsy Woman on the intro?), but A2 has a very Cajmere-esque production and vocal so it's a winner with me. B1's much more techno, and combines the best riffs from the A-side mixes with a right good hard squelch. I'll give you two out of three for them, Mr Von Oswald.

B2 has a remix from Mr Baxter himself which concentrates on his spoken words over a nice bouncy beat with synth stabs and his own backing vocals up in the background.

Here's a great idea for the B3 'Brothapella' track - why not make a big-beat record with the title vocal sample slowed down and repeated ad nausea for five minutes? You might even get a hit single. Oh...

Monday, 21 September 2009

You people are too good. After a truly awful day at work which took nearly two hours to get home from I was greeted with three messages about this mix to commemorate the release of the Weatherall abum (finally!) - thanks to justanothabrotha and swissadam on the comments, and an email from Sam.

Certainly looks like my kinda tracklisting, I see he's got that Mogwai track back in his set. Magnificent.

Here's the link to the full chat on the FACT website, and I'll copy in their direct link for just now. It's only up for three weeks so if anyone needs it after that fire a comment in and I'll stick it up on 4Shared. *EDIT* that link took me fuckin ages to download so I've re-upped it to 4Shared so you don't have a similar experience.

Just the one post today as I need to go for some TLC and maybe a cheeky glass of wine or two...

Sunday, 20 September 2009

This is a 43 minute drone with some sitars on it, which was recorded at Waterman's Art Centre in Hammersmith. Fuck knows what sort of a nick you'd have had to be in to attend such an evening but I'm sure everyone was suitably spaced out.

The reissued version of this had extra tracks but my Fierce UK one only has this one. According to Wikipedia the sleeve notes (not on my version) credit Pat Fish, a.k.a. the Jazz Butcher, with "joint rolling."

Quite nice to stick on if you're lying about doing fuck all and just want to zone out, it's had a full airing on more than one Sunday afternoon round at Moggieboy Towers. Tends to be the sort of thing that girls hate though - definitely a 'guy on his own' kinda thing. "Get that shite off" has been heard on more than one occasion (by more than one girl as well), but I'd be interested to hear of any females who dig the Dreamweapon...

This EP came out in 1994, but wasn't properly released. I used to receive regular postcards from Mr Cope, featuring a stone circle on the front and an amusing tale or two contained within. When this postcard popped through my letterbox, it contained instructions on how to acquire this EP - check it out here. So... you had to buy his Queen Elizabeth CD, peel a sticker off it, stick said sticker onto a used envelope and post used envelope to the record company. Within three weeks. No used envelope = no CD.

The tune's a great wee ditty from the Autogeddon album which was a stripped down 'Cope plus acoustic' on its original form. The first track here does the track proper justice with a full band, complete with string quartet.

There's then a version that's sung with a bunch of visitors to Avebury stones (stoners?), who sing along all hippy-dippy. I reckon there must have been kids present, as he changes the line "get away from the inbred Fuckingham palace scum" to "get away from our well-bred Buckingham Palace chums". No swearing in front of the kids!

Track three is an instrumental version with full-on analogue Kraut synths all over it which is a bit mental, then the album version completes the set.

A rare 'CD' single for Ripped In Glasgow - I must have been subliminally inspired, Derren Brown style, by Castles In Space's recent postings...

Julian Cope - Paranormal In The West Country1 - Paranormal In The West Country (With The Leone Quartet)2 - Paranormal In The West Country (Avebury)3 - Paranormal In The West Country (Krankenhausmusik)4 - Paranormal In The West Country (Original)

Saturday, 19 September 2009

Keeping in the spirit of posting stuff courtesy of other folk in what has been the most enjoyable week of Ripped In Glasgow yet, here's a 12" from the missus' "ethereal indie rock" collection.

Aye, she was a bit of a goth back in the day. Needless to say I had moved on by this point and was in full-on techno mode but she was a bit of a late developer.

This should clear out any post-Kajagoogoo cobwebs that are still lurking after the endurance test that was last night - it's just what the doctor ordered (I enjoyed it really). A nice bit of haunting melancholy darkness…

Friday, 18 September 2009

It was only yesterday that I was unable to locate this double-pack in my flat, and along comes 'Jim' to the rescue! You are too kind...

Here's five tracks of stripped-down really clean sounding drums and bass (not that type) from Messrs Weatherall and Hardway, really subtle stuff. It took me a while to get into this when it came out but ended up loving it - there's all sorts of noises sneak in and out at various points and they're various speeds so you can fanny about with them on the decks for ages.

I've got a Percy X vs Blood Sugar 12" somewhere as well, which was released on Soma, but I think that's all there was from this alias. Beautiful packaging as well, one red vinyl with a white label and vice versa (as shown below).

Only the one post today as I've gotta go out shortly to go and see Kajagoogoo(!) It's a long story and a kinda 'girlfriend in-laws' favour - not exactly looking forward to it but that Limahl was looking no bad the last time I saw him. Better start drinking now...

Ah, the mysterious Various Artists, who I posted a Chain Reaction EP up by a couple of months ago. That EP was entitled '1-7'. This is a set of remixes of the follow-up (which I've not got the original mixes of for some reason). This one featured 8, 8.5 and 9. What a joker, eh?

The remixes are suitably far-out, by Autechre, Funkstörung (who I'll need to put up some stuff by), Pole, and Monolake (likewise). Can't really describe what it sounds like, but expect various spacey beats, minimal noises, waves and waves of 'quiet noise' and a beatless number at the end.

This one goes out for Tony fae Fife, the man who gave us the Psychick Warriors demo tape below...

Today's guest contribution comes from 'former Edinburgh lad and Pure goer' Matty, who emailed me a link to a great site last week. This features not quite all of the Bloodsugar mixes that Audrey did that were distributed on tape(!) at around the turn of the millennium. This series followed the double-pack 12" 'Levels' by Blood Sugar which I seem to have temporarily lost somewhere in the midden that is my flat.

I only had a couple of these, and they were on tape and got duly lost over the years, so it's nice to have an easy download source for most of them here. Lots of Rhythm & Sound-era Basic Channel stuff on them, very minimal throughout but they can get fairly banging at points too. I'm sure that most of you will have at least some of these somewhere but here's a nice handy repository.

As Matty also points out, there's hunners of other stuff on the main page, including some gigs from Chain Reaction favourites, Monolake amongst a very varied selection of other great stuff including the mighty Can, from 1975.

Go check out these mixes, and set aside a spare week or two to work your way through 'em...

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd had a few goodies through in the email from you wonderful people. Well, check this one out, courtesy of 'Tony fae Fife'.

Aware of my quest to track down the missing live recording of the infamous Barras gig, Tony managed to source a copy of this cassette, containing 1989 demo versions of four tracks.

Fuck me! This is the holy grail of PWOG folklore - track A1 is an early version of Maenad, and B1/B2 (both outstanding) are unreleased to my knowledge. What a find - Tony got in touch with a guy who turned out to be their DJ back in the early days who had the tape. Obviously asked him if there were any live shows knocking about, but to no avail (I'm very aware of just how much a cunt I am for ditching all my tapes including THAT Barras gig). There's a great anecdote from him copied into my email which probably wouldn't be fair to put on here but it seems like they were heady days indeed!

Jeez, between this, the Sabres post below and that Sabres Peel Session you folks are OUT THERE on the hard-to-find shit. Keep sending them my way, it's all much appreciated...

Monday, 14 September 2009

This week on Ripped In Glasgow I'm gonna stick up a few tunes which have come to me from you wonderful people. First up is a trio of unreleased Sabres mixes of a group called Switzerland - featuring Martin Price from 808 State alongside Neale Johnson and Steve Caton, circa 1992. This arrived in my inbox courtesy of Ian from Manchester, who has been very patient with my inability to download from his iDisk.

So, it appears that Switzerland released two very limited EPs, and a third one under the name Pornography. I've now got all of them as well and will put up at some point. But - according to Ian these were never released, apart from literally a handful of copies, one of which he managed to get his grubby mitts on.

I've only had a chance to listen through them once, but it reminded me a bit of the three Bjork mixes, in that each one is a step up from the previous, and features hooks from the other mixes (if that makes sense).

A1 has some skippy percussion noises with some 'party'-style vocal samples thrown into the mix. Track A2 is classic Cajmere - fucked up piano riff, great percussion and a dreamy vocal before a haunting synth comes over the top. Magnificent.

B1 reminds me a bit of this track in style (which I've got somewhere), and ended up getting remixed to fuck afterwards a la Flash.

B2 seems to be a percussion 'version' of Wet Dream from this EP. I wonder if Janus was the person he was having the Wet Dream about.

After my email about yesterday's Fuck Buttons post I think I'll stick to my original remit of only putting up stuff that's out of print. Fuck sake - I was only trying to encourage people to check out a taster for the album, which you would all go out and buy due to the Weatherall connection, wouldn't you...?

Sunday, 13 September 2009

A new release but it's only a cheeky 7" single - the album certainly won't be getting posted here (ie please don't pull it).

Bought this picture disc yesterday in Monorail. Weird - I got served by Stephen Pastel and I wondered if he knew that I was the guy who had posted his 7" single last weekend (that got pulled). I was waiting for a comment about what I'd be doing with these records but it didn't come, thank fuck.

These two tracks are produced by Andrew Weatherall, as is the forthcoming album. Both are stunning - lots of great noises and fucked-up effects throughout. They're playing Glasgow Stereo on 24th September and I'll certainly be there. Cannae wait to see how this gets done live...

So... it looks like 4shared is fucked, has been hacked according to this story.

All is not lost though. There is a mirror site for 4shared called 4shared-china. If you click a download link it won't work, but go to the URL in your address bar and change it to 4shared-china, like this:

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Fairly late period Fall, this led with their cover of The Big Bopper's White Lightning, which sees Mark E Smith in 50s rocker mode. A great EP, with another point of interest being the three-part Zagreb on B1. I've always loved MES's anarchic personality, and his autobiography's a hoot.

A few years ago the BBC got him in to read out the football results on BBC1's Score programme. If you've not seen it, check it out on YouTube, it's fuckin hilarious.

Hopefully this won't get pulled, as most of my 'non dance' weekend stuff did last week. Cunts...

Ignore the few crackles at the start and behold the swarm of bees that builds up over the 13 mins of this majestic track.

Slag off Jam & Spoon if you want, but if you ever heard this (or Stella) in a club back in the day you'll know why I'm posting this.

The first time I heard it was when a mate returned from a Pure-related night down in London that had been in a car park ("Sprint"?), and put this on my deck. I couldn't fuckin believe it - total insanity. Got dutifully in the zone and listened to it again the next weekend, the went to Pure and it got played. Cue the madness...

This record is in a terrible state - the A-side has patches all over it which makes it look like a leopard (or a bit Singing Detective) - no worries - it's shitty mixes of 'Right In The Night', a pish track, and this side's in a bit better state (must be the drunk falling over and keeping his pint straight up again). Follow Me plays OK, thank fuck. Go buy the original if you want to, and give me a copy! This rip actually counteracts much of the shittiness of the nick of the vinyl.

I defy you not to get goosebumps as it hits the 6 minute mark. Then start punching the air at the 8 min mark. FLANGE-TASTIC! Then it's the swarm of bees again - aw man it's the bees knees…

No need for any of the other tracks as (a) they're fucked, and (b) they're shite.

Friday, 11 September 2009

… or "Paul who used to do the backroom at Industria" back in the snowball-tastic Pussypower days. The first time I ever heard Bug In The Bassbin it was him who played it. Early 1993. I can't believe that I remember that.

So… this 12" has two tracks of class house and a nice wee downbeat number in the middle. The A-side's got a great bass riff that is nicked off this, according to Discogs. I've never heard the track so can't comment. It's a great tune though.

B sides are equally great - B2 is hard and hypnotic as hell, sucks you right in for 9 minutes plus then fires you out again at the other side, a shadow of your former self.

This is all being done in a hurry just now, I've got a very small time window and should really be doing other stuff but fuck it.

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Got my usual Friday email from the 4four forum, with the live sets of the week on it. There hasn't been too much on it recently so couldn't believe it when I saw this. Somehow I didn't get round to listening to it until yesterday what with one thing and another...

FUCK ME - Audrey is on top form throughout, two hours that pretty much nails everything I love from dance music. From the opening track of the Gatto Fritto mix of Franz Ferdinand right through to whatever the fuck the last track is, via Uptown-style dub disco, house, techno and even a great sax-led track that I'd love to get my paws on (never thought I'd say that).

All my unbiased opinion of course, but you'll not regret giving over two hours of your life to listen to this in a oner. If you're getting up to any nonsense this weekend (and remember the weekend starts on a Thursday, kids) fire this one on and you'll have a fuckin blast.

Only just over a week to go till the album's out, and I noticed that there's a Vol 2 of the Boardroom album out now as well. I've just ordered the pair of them, along with a nice A3 poster of the album. He's produced the Fuck Buttons album as well, so it's definitely another year of tip top Weatherall action...

Andrew Weatherall - Live At The Hare And Hounds Birmingham (12-06-2009)First HourSecond HourNow on 4shared.

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

I couldn't believe that he LED with the drum'n'bass remix on A1, but it's a winner, courtesy of Mr 'Feel The Sunshine'. A brave move for such a techno bod I reckon. I fuckin love this mix, and was going through a wee d'n'b phase myself around this time. It cheekily starts and finishes with snatches of the regular mix as well...

I don't fucking believe it, had just finished ripping track A1 while I was typing that last paragraph, so leaned over to put the needle down to record track A2 and sent a full glass of red wine over the corner of a deck, onto the top of my open record box, splashing against the (white) wall, right down all the loose ones that were next to the box and I want to cry. Pretty much every record in the flight case (approx 100?) now has red wine stain somewhere on it's upper body. Now I've got a living room full of sleeves trying to dry their corners, an empty record box attempting to dry, and a heavy heart. An audience reaction sheet to a white label Finitribe Weatherall 12" white label caught it too. Aaaaaaggghh. Not even pissed as well - just a cheeky (large) glass to tan while doing this. What a clumsy cunt - this is about my worst booze-related vinyl damage ever and I am fuckin gutted. That's my Acid Ted t-shirt fucked as well (also white, of course) - it copped a load too.

Track A2 is called Life Goes On. How fuckin appropriate.

Track B1? Aye, Luke Slater in techno mode. It's a great mix. B2? The original. Off to cry now.

Four very different mixes, released on the magnificent Touché label in 1998.

In a first for Ripped In Glasgow, I'm posting a dance 12" from someone who's YOUNGER than me. According to Discogs, Laidback Luke was born in 1976, four whole years after I was born.

The original mix is great deep house, but it really gets going on A2, where Dobre gets all Vapourspace on us with a siren straight outta Gravitational Arch of 10 (now I'll need to get THAT up), and pounding drums/bass which sound a bit like this Stefan Robbers 12" from a while back. Excellent stuff.

Ian Pooley gets a bit filtered on the flip, with lots of brief vocal snatches over a nice up-the-front hi-hat and some tech-house as opposed to his previous harder stuff. I went through a phase of this kinda stuff towards the millennium but in hindsight it's not nearly as good as it seemed at the time. Yeah, this one kinda overstays its welcome if you ask me…

I love the B2 mix though - lots of scratching (hence the title I guess) done by Luke himself, a good wee filler as part of a long mix I'd reckon. Not a great track in its own right but definitely good as 'filler'...

Tuesday, 8 September 2009

A double-header today from Global Communication, two separate 12"s for The Groove single, from 1997. This was the follow-up to The Way/The Deep so I snapped it up eagerly. Not what I was expecting, but still a great package. A bit out of my comfort zone here - different from the usual mainstays of this blog so we'll see how it goes down.

Disc OneThe A mix doesn't really do it for me - a bit too light for my liking but this is more than made up for thanks to the B1 mix, much more deep and it's got great rough hi-hat noises that run through it along with a fab bass hook that goes right through you. Modwheel is yet another Tom Middleton alias just in case you were wondering.

When I originally saw the title of the B2 mix, I was fearing some sort of rap-on-top jobby, but was pleasantly surprised to find a downbeat, Mo Wax style mix which is very 'lounge bar' / coffee table style. Mind you, I've made it sound shit with that description...

Disc TwoThe A mix is has a great hip-hop riff with a vocal sample over it, no real surprise then, as the remix comes courtesy of Palm Skin Productions. Not the kinda thing I'd normally go for but nice for a wee change. The sounds start to get fucked up about halfway through the mix, everything gets stretched out and delayed to fuck. Magic.

The B mix sees Dego from 4 Hero turn in a very Mo Wax-style mix, complete with shuffling beats, shimmering keyboard riffs and a cut-up bass riff to match. I'm not as well-versed in this kinda stuff as the house/techno and didn't really venture much beyond the staples of Shadow / Krush / Lavelle & these fellas. Got a nice instrumental hip-hop compilation from the mid 90s if anyone's interested, but there's other blogs do this sort of thing much better than I ever could so it'll be back to the traditional stuff tomorrow.

Monday, 7 September 2009

This is a throbbing pulsating motherfucker of a remix of the classic Spacemen 3 tune, comin' atcha all the way back from 1990, towards the end of the Pierce/Kember partnership and shortly before Spiritualized / Spectrum reared their relative heads.

The remix isn't done by some hotshot dance producer like oor Audrey, but from indie mixer/remixer in chief, Anjali Dutt (me neither). This used to always get a play out at certain times of the night/morning round R-i-G towers.

For years I believed that Sonic Boom was the heir to the Mr Kipling empire (Kember / Kipling - just the stage name, y'see?) - and that all his kit had a completely legit source of funds, namely from the French Fancies income etc. The fact that I heard this from more than one source added fuel to the fire. Only years later (in fact only a couple of years ago!) I found out that this was, in fact, pure pish.

Off to see Spiritualized to the Ladies & Gents album in its entirety in a couple of months, complete with a full orchestra, whereas the last time I saw Sonic it was him on his own with loads of analogue pedals and cables everywhere - not a tune went by without complaints to the sound desk about the quality (which was fine, unlike the nick of him). *sigh*

Sunday, 6 September 2009

The second post-Throbbing Gristle album from Chris & Cosey, came out in 1982.

If you've not heard this album you'll not believe it came out in 1982 - so ahead of its time in terms of electronics, sampling etc. This is much more accessible than much of the original TG output, and some of it could be played in clubs today and sound current as fuck.

I've got a remix album somewhere, which came out on T&B vinyl - will stick it up when I come across it but this masterpiece will do just now.

We're just about to go and check out the TG-soundtracked A=P=P=A=R=I=T=I=O=N exhibition at the Tramway in Glasgow for a bit of culture on a Sunday afternoon. It's only on for a few more weeks so figured we'd better go while we're in the mood.

Saturday, 5 September 2009

A 7" 'intriguing' picture disc from Julian Cope's acid fuzz-rock trio, Brain Donor, formed in 2001 and consisting of Cope with two members of Spiritualized.

This was the second single released by the band, a taster for the debut album 'Love, Peace & Fuck' which I've got on beautiful double-white vinyl somewhere.

The band's aim is "a desire to combine Van Halen-esque heavy metal with garage rock in the style of Blue Cheer, and Japanese bands High Rise and Mainliner."

Here's what Cope has to say about this single:

"Donorland explodes with these two cloven-hoofed Pan-shamanic frig-ditties. This life affirming proto-Wodinist upheaval is available in two formats: CD and intriguing 7" picture disc. Ritual death in the afternoon never felt so good."

Went to see this lot the other night and picked up this 7" single at the gig.

I've seen the Pastels at various points over the last 18 years or so, and they've been very hit'n'miss. This show saw them joining forces with Japanese duo Tenniscoats (for their debut gig together) and it sounded fuckin brilliant. There were eight folk on stage and they sounded better than I've ever seen them. I never thought I'd ever see a Japanese guy onstage playing a harmonica, but it happened on Wednesday night. They've done a full album together, Two Sunsets, which I'll pick up at some point.

The A-side's very Orange Juice-esque, and there's a fab cover of the Mary Chain's About You on the flip.

I know this is a 'new release' and I probably shoudn't be putting it up, but I don't think many Pastels fans will be checking out this blog, and they'll be the types who'd buy the original anyway.

Weird, I always seem to prefer them when they're collaborating with other people...

This is a 7" single that you could only buy on the 1991 Peggy Suicide tour.

I made it to three of the gigs on the tour, and the first night at Glasgow King Tuts remains one of the best gigs I've ever witnessed. Safesurfer first appeared in a very early incarnation on the Droolian album, before getting the proper treatment for the classic Peggy Suicide album. The version on this single is more like the one that he was playing live on the tour. I bought 2 copies, and got one signed by the man himself after the Edinburgh show. I was really nervous (never meet your idols - they'll always disappoint), but Mr Cope couldn't have been nicer. I was close to tears at this point - overcome with emotion, ended up a gibbering wreck!

The version of If You Loved Me At All is also akin to the live version, so the single's a great wee souvenir of the tour.

If you've not read his two autobiographies, Head On and Repossessed, you should check them out as they are great reads - some of the full-on acid casualty stories are hilarious...

Friday, 4 September 2009

Even though your dad's in Eastenders, you're still a CUNT. Stop it with the pish interview and cut to the tunes. Go and chase up your herbal pill brigade from that embarrassing BBC documentary and go fuck yourself.

Oh, that's where I come in.

Edited out for your sanity, here's the two Hub Sessions tracks from The (magnificent) Horrors yesterday minus George Lamb. For me, this is the joint album of the year so far (with the Weatherall effort), and I cannae wait to finally see them at ATP in December.

I just heard from a very reliable source that Suicide are doing the classic first album at ATP so (a) I hope it's my ATP and not the one the week after, and (b) it better not clash with these fellas. Aye, a UK tour that doesn't include a Scottish date? That'll be the Placebo support slot at the SECC? Get tae fuck - not acceptable. Get yerselves up the Barras or the ABC and get it sorted...

Thursday, 3 September 2009

The Cause were Craig Walsh (brother of label owner Nina?), Lindsay 'Innersphere' Edwards and Scott Braithwaite, and this was an excellent pair of dancefloor stompers which fitted in with exactly what I was into at the moment they came out. I couldn't get enough of this, the B-side in particular - a very formative part of my dance music education.

I still reckon it cuts it today as well, and would quite happily play it out now given the chance.

While on the subject of 'banging', Edinburgh's Club For Heroes reopens its doors tonight in a new venue, and goes weekly (and free!) on Thursdays instead of the previous monthly Fridays. Onwards and upwards! I won't be able to get to many of them due to work commitments but we're gonna take the plunge tonight for the grand reopening, with the mighty JD Twitch from Optimo guest DJing in the main room. If you're unlucky enough to stay in Edinburgh you'd be insane not to check this out tonight. 11-3 at the GRV, and did I mention it's FREE...

It's been a while since I posted any Basic Channel / Chain Reaction stuff, so here's a minimal-as-hell EP from 1997.

The producer of this trio of tracks is Torsten Pröfrock, the same guy who was Various Artists and Traktor from previous posts. But - this one was also mastered by a certain Mr Von Oswald, and you can hear his influence across all three tracks.

The A-side is a 4/4 12 minute hypnotic trip into a dark place, then the beats are put right to the back of the mix in favour of some right haunting noises for B1. Things get even more spaced out for B2, as the beats are done away with completely in favour of, well I don't quite know how to sum it up but I imagine it would be good for those moments when you just need to zone out but your mind's AWAKE AS HELL - should help do the trick.

Any Maurizio fans should check out this album form earlier in the year - looks like he's back on form...

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

The first time I heard this was at a mate's house just before we went to the first ever Pure at Barrowlands. Funny how you remember these things, eh? I couldn't believe it was Cajmere - I was used to the Underground Goodie-style house music that he'd been banging out for a year or two. It all made sense though - there's much more commonality between the two aliases than I'd initially thought.

I didn't manage to get the original release where Preacher Man was the B-side to Conniption. This followed quickly after, moving Preacher Man to the A-side and sticking these two tracks on the flip. I've got Conniption on another 12" but it jumps to fuck. Actually, there's a jump on B1 on this 12' - too many plays when fucked I guess.

B1's got a bit of a 'no brainer' riff - it's got a pitch bend up'n'down hook that goes on and off over a fairly bog-standard Relief beat, and gets fucked about with a bit in typical GV style. I love it. Each part of the track gets its own wee solo at various points, if you know what I mean. It's the kind of track that would drive your non-Chicago-house-loving other half mental.

C1 sounds dead like a Cajmere track that I've uploaded already, it's got a 'laser-gun' style riff that gets progressively more insane as the track progresses. Another couple of jumps here - sorry folks. Preacher Man's OK though, I reckon must have fallen as I was taking it off the deck Preacher Man side up and scuffed on something on the way down, the vinyl equivalent of falling over pissed and managing to keep your drink upright...

Strange, I took a wee notion to fire this up today as I was walking home from work, as I'd clocked it yesterday in a pile. Got home to check the email and someone had put a comment on this post asking for this very record. Bizarre...

So - three untitled mixes of the title track, featuring vocals from Terence FM. The A-side mix is fairly strightforward with a repeating bass riff and the vocal hook repeated throughout, but the B-side's where it's at. B1 fucks it all up big style with a completely different bassline that goes all Green Velvety after a bit. B2 is a lot more percussive and dubby, it sounds like it's waiting to break into the crashing drums of 'Flash' but never does. The vocal sneaks in after about 4 minutes and gets phased in and out of the mix. It goes mental towards the end, lots of squelching and tribally percussion.